Banquet and utility tables having collapsible legs and fold-in-half tabletops are well known. Conventionally, fold-in-half tabletops comprise two plastic tabletop halves that are formed by blow molding or injection molding. When the table is unfolded into the use position in which the tabletop halves are aligned, the inner edges of the tabletop halves come together in the center of the tabletop. In some designs, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,096,799 and depicted in FIG. 11, the inner edges of the tabletop halves have interlocking and overlapping features that are integrally formed as parts of the molded tabletop halves. When the tabletop halves are aligned in the use position, the interlocking features 234 and overlapping features 236 of the two halves will be interconnected, thereby forming a more rigid tabletop.
Though a rigid tabletop is desirable, providing integral interlocking and overlapping features in the tabletop halves introduces further complexity and cost to the mold in which the tabletop halves are formed. Further, because these features are located at or near the mold separation line where two mold halves come together, the removal of any plastic burs in the molded parts at the mold separation line is made more difficult. It is easier to remove burs if the mold separation line coincides with a straight edge surface, with no features projecting from the edge surface. Thus, elimination of the interlocking features would make the manufacturing process more efficient.
What is needed, therefore, is a fold-in-half tabletop that is sufficiently rigid and has straight surfaces along the inner edges of the tabletop halves, with no molded interlocking features.